The Politics of Mine Action

Mine action as a concept aims at alleviating the impacts of landmines and similar explosive remnants of war and, contrary to its narrow interpretation, entails much more than a singular action against mines. If performed well, significant humanitarian, socio-economic and peacekeeping and/or peacebuilding benefits can be obtained via the five mine action pillars : mine clearance, victim assistance, stockpile destruction, mine risk education and advocacy. " The Politics of Mine Action" is about the multilateral and institutional politics and policy making in a particular disarmament domain. Through the application of game theoretic principles, it envisages bringing clarity to a myriad of political actors and courses of action in response to a complex global problem. The mixture of politics and its underpinning technicalities are further specified in the subtitle : Normative Game and Decision Theoretic Approaches to Post Conflict Problems caused by landmines and similar explosive remnants of war. It stipulates in which discipline this dissertation in particular wants to contribute, namely through the presentation of innovative decision analysis approaches. This envisaged contribution is born out of the observations made during field visits of diverse mine action programmes, in particular the mine action programme in Afghanistan. Based on this case study, this dissertation demonstrates through a set of metrics how mine action can contribute to a more secure environment, reduce human suffering and allow for the promotion of a variety of post-conflict reconstruction and development activities.